Add support for online/offline plot/iplot methods

It's now possible to execute a fair amount of legacy graph construction and plotting code

Author: Jon M. Mease

plotly/basedatatypes.py

@@ -944,6 +944,9 @@ def to_dict(self):
 
         return res
 
+    def to_plotly_json(self):
+        return self.to_dict()
+
     def save_html(self, filename, auto_open=False, responsive=False):
         data = self.to_dict()
         if responsive:
@@ -1283,6 +1286,9 @@ def _props(self):
             # Get data from parent's dict
             return self.parent._get_child_props(self)
 
+    def to_plotly_json(self):
+        return deepcopy(self._props)
+
     def _init_props(self):
         # Ensure that _data is initialized.
         if self._props is not None:

plotly/offline/offline.py

@@ -150,16 +150,8 @@ def init_notebook_mode(connected=False):
 
 def _plot_html(figure_or_data, config, validate, default_width,
                default_height, global_requirejs):
-    # force no validation if frames is in the call
-    # TODO - add validation for frames in call - #605
-    if 'frames' in figure_or_data:
-        figure = tools.return_figure_from_figure_or_data(
-            figure_or_data, False
-        )
-    else:
-        figure = tools.return_figure_from_figure_or_data(
-            figure_or_data, validate
-        )
+
+    figure = tools.return_figure_from_figure_or_data(figure_or_data, validate)
 
     width = figure.get('layout', {}).get('width', default_width)
     height = figure.get('layout', {}).get('height', default_height)

plotly/plotly/plotly.py

@@ -714,14 +714,7 @@ def get(figure_or_data, format='png', width=None, height=None, scale=None):
 
         """
         # TODO: format is a built-in name... we shouldn't really use it
-        if isinstance(figure_or_data, dict):
-            figure = figure_or_data
-        elif isinstance(figure_or_data, list):
-            figure = {'data': figure_or_data}
-        else:
-            raise exceptions.PlotlyEmptyDataError(
-                "`figure_or_data` must be a dict or a list."
-            )
+        figure = tools.return_figure_from_figure_or_data(figure_or_data, True)
 
         if format not in ['png', 'svg', 'jpeg', 'pdf']:
             raise exceptions.PlotlyError(

plotly/tools.py

@@ -1440,18 +1440,24 @@ def _repr_html_(self):
 
 def return_figure_from_figure_or_data(figure_or_data, validate_figure):
     from plotly.graph_objs import graph_objs
+
+    validated = False
     if isinstance(figure_or_data, dict):
         figure = figure_or_data
     elif isinstance(figure_or_data, list):
         figure = {'data': figure_or_data}
+    elif isinstance(figure_or_data, graph_objs.Figure):
+        figure = figure_or_data.to_dict()
+        validated = True
     else:
         raise exceptions.PlotlyError("The `figure_or_data` positional "
-                                     "argument must be either "
-                                     "`dict`-like or `list`-like.")
-    if validate_figure:
+                                     "argument must be "
+                                     "`dict`-like, `list`-like, or an instance of plotly.graph_objs.Figure")
+
+    if validate_figure and not validated:
 
         try:
-            graph_objs.Figure(figure)
+            graph_objs.Figure(**figure)
         except exceptions.PlotlyError as err:
             raise exceptions.PlotlyError("Invalid 'figure_or_data' argument. "
                                          "Plotly will not be able to properly "